To many clients, one of the key benefits of unbundled legal services is that clients have the opportunity to play a key role in solving their own legal problems. They appreciate the “partnership” approach between lawyer and client and say that they feel more “empowered”. Forrest (“Woody”) Mosten, the Father of Unbundling, says:

“Unbundling is based on a power-sharing between attorney and client as to how to handle the case and who will do the work. Also, unbundling and Collaborative Law both underscore client empowerment as the basis for these forms of legal services.”

An empowerment approach also helps . . . [more]

Rideshare companies like Uber have already completely transformed the transportation industry, but they are not without their detractors. As I first mentioned in 2017, a class action launched against the company, and has recently made its way to the Ontario Court of Appeal.

The Superior Court motion decision, summarized on Slaw here, relied on the Arbitration Act, 1991, the International Commercial Arbitration Act, 2017, and case law such as Seidel v. TELUS Communications Inc., Wellman v. TELUS Communications Company, and Douez v. Facebook, Inc., to stay the action in favour of a mandatory . . . [more]

Each Friday, we share the latest job listings from Slaw Jobs, which features employment opportunities from across the country. Find out more about these positions by following the links below, or learn how you can use Slaw Jobs to gain valuable exposure for your job ads, while supporting the great Canadian legal commentary at Slaw.ca.

Current postings on Slaw Jobs (newest first):

• Lawyer Opportunities (Contract Roles) | Toronto, ON
  (Caravel Law)
• Manager, Community and Content (Full-time) | Canada-Wide/Location Independent
  (CanLII)
• Assistant Professor or Associate Professor (Full-time) | Ottawa, ON
  (University of Ottawa)
• Assistant Professor/Director of the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian

It was in my role as a director of Dunedin Academic Press that recently and with some trepidation, I attended a series of workshops on open access (OA) in relation to scholarly monographs. Issues surrounding open access, as they apply to the academic journals market are now substantially rehearsed but they are less so in relation to books and the various markets for them. While most of the discussion and progress made thus far is in the academic market and primarily in such fields as humanities and social sciences, it certainly made me ponder, perhaps with a degree of anxiety, . . . [more]

Most of what you are being told about the future of blockchain in the legal profession is nonsense.

Don’t get me wrong. Blockchain is very cool. And I am the furthest thing from a luddite you will find in the legal profession. I’m a part-time LLM student at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law and Department of Computing Science studying the automation of legal reasoning. I’m an ABA Innovation Fellow for 2018/2019, writing open-source software to automate analogy to prior cases. I am an advocate for the adoption of technology in law.

So I’m enthusiastic about blockchain being adopted . . . [more]

[A side note for . . . [more]

The Law Society of Ontario has a duty to maintain and advance the cause of justice and the rule of law[1]. Does that mean that the Law Society is empowered to intervene in private litigation in order to advance the cause of justice? Is the Law Society is entitled to involve itself in judicial review cases where it is alleged that another administrative body has acted outside of its jurisdiction, or for improper purposes, in breach of the rule of law principle?

The Law Society has a duty to act so as to facilitate access to justice for . . . [more]

I never make “New Year’s resolutions” — I’m too old to think that they will come to fruition — but I have decided to identify five “wishes’ I have for Ontario and Canada more broadly in 2019: 1. stop all the studies and take action re A2J; 2. provide lessons to the premier about what the rule of law means; 3. allow advance directives for medically assisted deaths; 4. don’t diminish existing protection for children and youth; 5. revise the new Law Society of Ontario logo without too much delay. . . . [more]

There are lots of legal topics that will likely make headlines in 2019, but here are my top 3 pick for hot or important legal issues in the new year:

1. Cannabis-related litigation will abound.The much anticipated legislation for marijuana legalization was already delayed by punting back and forth by the Senate. Implementation in Ontario was further hampered by restrictions on sales and distribution issues due to the postal strike. Most cannabis in Ontario is currently still sourced illegally.
   There have been plenty of conversations about the potential implications of marijuana legalization in Canada, spanning everything from its use in the

One Sunday each month OnPoint Legal Research provides Slaw with an extended summary of, and counsel’s commentary on, an important case from the British Columbia, Alberta, or Ontario court of appeal.

Clancy v. Clancy, 2018 BCCA 448

AREAS OF LAW: Summary judgment; Family law; Formal order; Want of jurisdiction

~The Court of Appeal has no jurisdiction to hear an appeal in which the appellant takes no issue with the order made in the court below, but contends that it should have been granted for reasons other than those expressed in the judgment.~

BACKGROUND

The Appellant, John Clancy, . . . [more]